Measured Performance of a Solar Augmented Heat Pump/Chiller System with Thermal Storage in Tanks of Stratified Water

摘要

The performance of the heating and cooling system in a building designed to illustrate energy conservation, solar energy use and thermal storage for electric load management and energy conservation was monitored for a period of 20 months, beginning in January 1981. Solar energy was employed to augment the heating energy obtained by heat recovery using electric-driven reciprocating heat pump/chillers and an air-to-air heat exchanger. Solar energy was gathered by 289 m exp 2 (3110 ft exp 2 ) of evacuated tube collectors on the roof of the building, which has a gross floor area of 5330 m exp 2 (57,350 ft exp 2 ). The fractions of the total active heating load, including air-to-air heat recovery, supplied by solar energy for the one partial and one completed heating season for which results were obtained, were 50 and 42 percent, respectively. Stratified water tanks were used in the heating season to store excess solar energy and both heating and cooling capacity generated by the heat pump/chillers. During the cooling season, the tanks were used to store cooling capacity generated by the chillers. An economic analysis using the results for energy consumption obtained from this building indicated that the solar system was not economically attractive, despite its encouraging technical performance. Thermal storage for electric load management was attractive for moderate costs of capital. (ERA citation 09:009696)